My friend, Bob Lee, says he found an LSU license plate for me, and on the back of the thing is the notice that it is an officially licensed NCAA license plate, which is much preferred to an unlicensed license plate, official or otherwise. Because the licentious licensing of unlicensed license plates can unleash all manner of licensed and unlicensed repercussions, particularly in a society that will go all litigious if an unlicensed licenser purports to license an unlicensed licensee in the licentious production and sales of unlicensed licensed merchandise, and Gawd help you if the federal Department of Unlicensed Licensable Licensers (DULL) wants in on the action, because they can really yank your license like nobody’s bidness.

Which is all well and good, I suppose, if the unlicensed or undocumented object is inanimate and not liable to hurt anyone. But what are we to do when such an object is animated and smashes in the skull of a lady cleaning the restrooms at a national monument? “It’s pretty amazing I survived,” said 60 year-old Karen Gonzales. “It makes me think that there is something else I have to do with my life.”

Beaten and left for dead by Gilbert Gaxiola, who is in the country illegally, Ms. Gonzales also sustained defensive wounds to her hands while attempting to fight back. Gaxiola beat her about the head with a rock, striking her so hard that the rock split in two. A dent in the metal doors bears testimony to the moment when he slammed her against the, before making off with her pickup truck.  

Gaxiola was later arrested for drug smuggling, though he wasn’t officially charged with that offense, nor with illegal entry into the country (both crimes apparently falling into the “act of love” category so artfully framed by Jeb Bush and enthusiastically endorsed by the Democratic Party). He is, however, charged with attempted first- and second-degree murder, armed robbery, three counts of aggravated assault, kidnapping, and auto theft. And judging from the Department of Homeland Security’s 2013 release of 36,000 illegal immigrants with a combined 88,000 criminal convictions, perhaps Gaxiola could qualify for release into the general population as well!

Among the thousands of acts of love these 36,000 salt-of-the-earth, hard working illegal immigrants brought to America were 426 sexual assaults, 1,317 domestic violence assaults, 303 kidnappings, 1,724 weapons offenses, 15,635 DWIs, and 193 homicides. For this, they were released in our midst, just last year, by the same President who now laments that enforcement of immigration laws is, “…not smart,” and insists that he can be trusted to oversee something called Comprehensive Immigration Reform, which is Orwellian on a whole new level because it isn’t the immigration system that is being reformed so much as the country itself.

Entering the country illegally no more entitles one to the benefits of American citizenship than my entering Jeb Bush’s home illegally would entitle me to adoption, three squares a day, and a generous mention in the family will. Of course, the odds of me or anyone else being able to pull that off are slim indeed, given the protections the Bush family’s status affords them. The same cannot be said, however, of Americans living near the nation’s southern border.  

Back in 2010, the government’s own Government Accountability Office reported that “illegal border activities” presented, “a threat to both public safety and health.” With over 500 tons of trash and 100 abandoned vehicles per year in a single national wildlife refuge in Arizona, the environmental impact across the southern border is significant, but it pales against the staggering financial toll it takes on American citizens. 

As far back as 2008, the National Research Council reported that illegal immigration costs American taxpayers some $346 billion annually, including what may be the most common act of love of all, as some 300,000 pregnant women cross the border illegally each year to bequeath us their “anchor babies.”  The average cost for a normal, healthy birth is now over $9,000, while the costs associated with Downs Syndrome, Autism, or any number of issues can send the bill into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, all financed by the coercive extraction of your earnings by a friendly IRS agent who reminds you that voluntary donations to conservative causes could be a bit of a problem. Add in the cost of years of free meals and public education, and suddenly that “nativist” citizen is starting to wonder why he at least doesn’t get a Father’s Day card from all the people he is supporting.  

I grow weary of being lectured on my supposedly simmering racism by people who spend every waking hour drafting thousands of new rules and regulations, fees, taxes and requirements that I, as a citizen, must master and comport with on pain of any number of draconian penalties, while those same people applaud others who break the rules; extol their virtues and compose sonnets to their “love”; and reward them with my earnings. I expect such twaddle from Democrats, because they see millions of new voters. But when Republican leaders join in the chorus, they sign their political death warrant.  

Speaker Boehner feels free to mock conservatives while Jeb Bush is at considerable liberty to lecture them, and the media marvels at the steely spine it takes to castigate those in their own party. But let the US Chamber of Commerce President ominously warn that if they don’t push through immigration reform, “…they shouldn’t bother to run a candidate in 2016,” and suddenly they prostrate their reason, fold up their spine, and abandon the people they claim to represent. President Obama threatens to grant amnesty by executive fiat if Congress doesn’t act, and Republicans start dancing as if he were aiming a six-shooter at their feet. These are leaders? 

Karen Gonzales, who is back on the job (though walking with a limp since she was beaten by an illegal immigrant) deserves better.  Millions of hard-working citizens, who play by the rules while watching their health care cost skyrocket and wondering how they will make ends meet, deserve better. Meanwhile, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to take seriously politicians who insist that we stick out our necks to support them while they break their own necks running away from one of the most serious domestic issues of the day.